Chapter One

When Luke arrived an hour later, the back of his truck was full and ready for any and all contingencies.

"I have a full tank of gas and I looked up a couple bed and breakfasts we could stay at between here and Maryland, plus I've got some camping gear if you want to stay in a cabin for a few days, though I didn't think you would, but who knows," he babbled as she pulled her suitcase down the stairs. "Or, if you want, we can go somewhere else and make a real road trip out of it, we don't have to go to Maryland."

"Maryland is great, Luke," Lorelai beamed at him. "All that matters is that it's happening. We're getting married."

"We're getting married," Luke echoed.

"Are you ready?"

"Absolutely." He leaned down and kissed her, then took her suitcase and headed out to the truck.

They were about two hours into the drive when they passed a sign indicating how many miles they were from Philadelphia and Lorelai started to panic.

"Rory!" She gasped. "Oh my God, Luke! Rory's not here! We didn't call Rory! Oh my God! I can't believe I did this! I can't believe I didn't call Rory! She's going to hate me!"

"Wait a minute," Luke reached out and put his hand on her knee in an attempt to comfort the hysterical woman beside him. "We haven't actually gotten married yet. We can go to Philly and get married, just show up at their door and make it a surprise. She'll be thrilled."

"You wanna bet?" Lorelai laughed spitefully. "She's going to hate me! God, we were just getting back to normal after everything and now I go and screw it all up by not calling her as soon as I got home to pack! What the hell is wrong with me?!"

"Nothing is wrong with you," Luke assured her. "You were excited. We both were."

"God, this is supposed to be the happiest day of my life and I go and ruin it by forgetting to bring my own kid with me!"

"You didn't ruin it," Luke assured her. "All that matters is that we're getting married and we can do it anywhere- City Hall, a church, Maryland, Philly, it doesn't matter. Whatever you want."

"You really are the perfect man, you know that?" Lorelai let out a shaky sigh and smiled. "God, why didn't we do this years ago."

"I was stupid," Luke shrugged.

"We both were."

"It's a good thing we smartened up, then."

"Apparently not that much," Lorelai frowned.

"Well, we're getting better."

"I love you, Luke Danes," Lorelai laughed and took his hand.

"I love you too, Lorelai Gilmore."

"Gilmore-Danes, I think."

"Really?" Luke was a little shocked. "I didn't think-"

"You didn't think I wanted to be Mrs. Danes?" Lorelai smiled up at him. "Because you thought wrong, mister. Unless you don't want me to change my name."

"No!" Luke shook his head vehemently. "No, I love it!"

"Lorelai Victoria Gilmore-Danes," she mused. "It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Definitely."

They were an hour away from Truncheon when Lorelai started freaking out again.

"Stop obsessing!" Luke ordered, noticing how fidgety she was. "It's going to be fine."

"I hope so," she sighed.

"I know so. Besides, we're almost there."

"I know."

"Do you want to call her ? Maybe if you talk to her you won't be so nervous," Luke suggested.

"No, I don't want her to get preemptively mad. I'll lose my nerve."

"I don't think I've ever seen you lose your nerve," Luke assured her. "Not in the twenty years that I've known you, and there have been many times when I wished you would because you have a habit of jumping head first into things you shouldn't."

"What are you talking about?" Lorelai demanded. "I'm a very careful planner."

"Ha!" Luke barked. "Rory is a careful planner. You wake up at three in the morning and announce that it's the perfect time to go for a road trip."

"That was one time!" Lorelai argued. "And it wasn't three in the morning, it was eleven at night and I had just cancelled my wedding."

"Two weeks ago you woke me up and told me you wanted to drive to Disney World!"

"Really? I don't remember that."

"Shocking," Luke said sarcastically.

The conversation lagged and Lorelai went back to fidgeting, and biting her lip.

"It's going to be fine!" He repeated for the hundredth time.

"I know."

"Then stop chewing a hole through your lip."

She clenched her teeth in an attempt to control herself and switched to jiggling her leg until the entire truck shook.

"Why do you think she's going to be upset?" Luke asked, glancing over at his fiancee.

"It's not so much that I think she'll be upset," Lorelai explained. "It's more that I think she's going to think I'm being overly rash and try to talk us out of this and I don't want to do that. I want to get married, I need to get married."

"We will," Luke squeezed her had reassuringly. "She's not going to talk you out of it."

"I just want her to be happy about this," she sighed.

"She will be."

Lorelai nodded, but he could tell she wasn't convinced.

"She will," he repeated. "We're going to get married and she's going to be happy and we're going to be happy."

"When did you turn into 'Happy, Happy Smile Man'?" Lorelai frowned at him. "I'm supposed to be the chipper one."

"You weren't holding up your role, so I figured I should pick up the slack," he shrugged. "One of us has to be in charge of moral."

"You're a good man, Luke Danes," she smiled over at him. "What would I ever do without you?"

"Thankfully we're never going to have to find out."

Once they were in the city he had a bit of trouble remembering how to get to Truncheon, but after a few wrong turns he finally found the street. He parked right in front of the building and got out, rounding the car and pulling Lorelai out onto the sidewalk.

"What if she hates us?" She asked, staring up at the building in concern.

"Why would she hate us? Doesn't she want us to get married?"

"Of course."

"Then she won't hate us," Luke promised.

"She might," Lorelai frowned. "If nothing else she might hate the fact that it's 4 in the morning."

"Is it really that early?" Luke asked, looking at his watch. "Huh. Well, maybe she'll be too tired to be mad at you. Come on."

"Nobody is going to be up," Lorelai reasoned. "We won't be able to get in."

"Jess said the back door is broken. Stop stalling."

"We can't break in! They'll call the cops on us!"

"They're not going to call the cops!" Luke sighed exasperatedly.

"They might! Or their roommates might. They don't know us!"

"They do so!" Luke cried. "We met them at the Open House, and you met them when you went to Atlantic City. Come on."

Before she could think of another argument, he pulled her around the back of the building and inside.

"Luke-"

"No," he shook his head.

"But-"

"Nope."

"Hey-"

"You're going to wake everyone up. Be quiet."

Lorelai snapped her mouth shut in annoyance and frowned at the man in front of her. When he stopped in front of Jess and Rory's door, Lorelai had the sudden urge to make a run for it, but Luke held her hand tightly and knocked.